Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to know if it is possible to run a version of pharo, recent if possible, on the Raspberry Pi?
>
> I know that there is a squeak vm on Raspian (Debian for the RaspberryPi) but it doesn't load recent pharo images.

Using the VM that comes with Raspbian, you can run Pharo 1.4.
Pharo 2.0 requires additional VM support.

Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

> Thierry,
>
> On 02 Oct 2013, at 10:14, Goubier Thierry <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm trying to know if it is possible to run a version of pharo, recent if possible, on the Raspberry Pi?
>>
>> I know that there is a squeak vm on Raspian (Debian for the RaspberryPi) but it doesn't load recent pharo images.
>
> Using the VM that comes with Raspbian, you can run Pharo 1.4.
> Pharo 2.0 requires additional VM support.

It would require a whole new VM wouldn't it? Or did the switch to a
Cog VM only happen during the 3.0 cycle? (Because Cog doesn't run on
ARM.)

Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

> On 2 October 2013 10:06, Sven Van Caekenberghe <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> Thierry,
>>
>> On 02 Oct 2013, at 10:14, Goubier Thierry <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I'm trying to know if it is possible to run a version of pharo, recent if possible, on the Raspberry Pi?
>>>
>>> I know that there is a squeak vm on Raspian (Debian for the RaspberryPi) but it doesn't load recent pharo images.
>>
>> Using the VM that comes with Raspbian, you can run Pharo 1.4.
>> Pharo 2.0 requires additional VM support.
>
> It would require a whole new VM wouldn't it? Or did the switch to a
> Cog VM only happen during the 3.0 cycle? (Because Cog doesn't run on
> ARM.)

I don't think it has to do with Cog, but rather with a few silly primitives related to files and time, I am just not sure which ones. But since these are needed during startup, debugging is hard.

Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

> Ok.
>
> This means I may suggest someone to lend some manpower to look into that. I'll ask.
>
> Could a stackVM and an ARM NB be a reasonable, short term target? I saw someone saying he would start on ASMJit for ARM a while back.

I would love now I do not know if Damien will have the energy to continue.

Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

> Hi,
>
> I managed to compile a StackVM on the raspberry Pi - a couple of months ago - though I haven't tried with the latest StackVM source. I meant to write it up, but life got in the way I'm afraid.

What you did (and I can't) is indeed what should be done: recompile locally ;-)

So the conclusion is that it worked and that you can now run Pharo 2.0 (and presumable 3.0) as well ?

That would be excellent and important news ! And the best short term solution.

Either you (but you lack time) or somebody else who feels at home with this stuff should redo your steps and produce the actual VM, so that us weak high-level programmers can have our Pharo and play ;-)

Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

I've attached a screen shot of Pharo 20623.image running on the Raspberry Pi - I'd connected through a VNC session into my Mac. The image is almost unusably slow - I don't know if the problem lays in the graphical performance + VNC rather than the bytecode execution. tinyBenchmarks give:

0 tinyBenchmarks '10471204 bytecodes/sec; 307552 sends/sec'

I came across a "PrimitiveFailed" walk-back from NativeBoost class>>#isEnabled and just commented out the primitive call and instead returned false. I guess this is probably as the VM sources I have date back to April/May so probably aren't completely compatible with 2.0.

I've shared my Raspberry Pi build folder "result" on dropbox, which contains the StackVM executable built on the Pi:

I haven't tried installing the built StackVM onto a clean Pi distribution so don't know if any of the packages I installed during the build process will also be required for executing the StackVM - don't complain too loudly if just copying the contents from dropbox doesn't work directly on your Pi.

> Hi,
>
> I managed to compile a StackVM on the raspberry Pi - a couple of months ago - though I haven't tried with the latest StackVM source. I meant to write it up, but life got in the way I'm afraid.

What you did (and I can't) is indeed what should be done: recompile locally ;-)

So the conclusion is that it worked and that you can now run Pharo 2.0 (and presumable 3.0) as well ?

That would be excellent and important news ! And the best short term solution.

Either you (but you lack time) or somebody else who feels at home with this stuff should redo your steps and produce the actual VM, so that us weak high-level programmers can have our Pharo and play ;-)

Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

Hi Sven and others,
I've attached a screen shot of Pharo 20623.image running on the Raspberry
Pi - I'd connected through a VNC session into my Mac. The image is almost
unusably slow - I don't know if the problem lays in the graphical
performance + VNC rather than the bytecode execution. tinyBenchmarks give:
0 tinyBenchmarks '10471204 bytecodes/sec; 307552 sends/sec'
I came across a "PrimitiveFailed" walk-back from NativeBoost
class>>#isEnabled and just commented out the primitive call and instead
returned false. I guess this is probably as the VM sources I have date back
to April/May so probably aren't completely compatible with 2.0.
I've shared my Raspberry Pi build folder "result" on dropbox, which
contains the StackVM executable built on the Pi:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cnta1hjoo7ptv1j/CELvuMjIRl
I haven't tried installing the built StackVM onto a clean Pi distribution
so don't know if any of the packages I installed during the build process
will also be required for executing the StackVM - don't complain too loudly
if just copying the contents from dropbox doesn't work directly on your Pi.
I found some more notes I made while trying to compile the VM - though
reading them back they seem more like the ramblings of a mad man and I'm
sure the problems I ran into compiling the StackVM will be sorted by now:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZIzvTmV4zkYrFgOdAzfZzC35iMAqI2jc-44XQO9wSwc/edit?usp=sharing
Also note that Pharo1.2.1 works with the VM used for Scratch in the
Raspberry Pi distribution - without the need to build your own VM.
Sorry I don't have many free cycles to support, but hope this might help
someone to create a "blessed" Raspberry Pi Pharo VM
Cheers
Nick
On 2 October 2013 12:47, Sven Van Caekenberghe [hidden email] wrote:

Hi,
I managed to compile a StackVM on the raspberry Pi - a couple of months

ago - though I haven't tried with the latest StackVM source. I meant to
write it up, but life got in the way I'm afraid.
What you did (and I can't) is indeed what should be done: recompile
locally ;-)
So the conclusion is that it worked and that you can now run Pharo 2.0
(and presumable 3.0) as well ?
That would be excellent and important news ! And the best short term
solution.
Either you (but you lack time) or somebody else who feels at home with
this stuff should redo your steps and produce the actual VM, so that us
weak high-level programmers can have our Pharo and play ;-)
Thanks,
Sven

The procedure I took was:
* From a PC running Pharo install VMMaker packages (I found it was

Re: Pharo for the Raspberry Pi

Also there is the '[squeak-dev] CharacterScanner and stopConditions' thread
following which Tim comments in [vm-dev] "...prompted me to try the
latest image with all the new character scanner stuff as well. Wow. Now
that makes an improvement. And that's on a stackvm with no fasterbitblt
support yet."